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| Once Filled With Symbols of Hope and Despair, a 9/11 Repository Is Nearly Empty | Once Filled With Symbols of Hope and Despair, a 9/11 Repository Is Nearly Empty |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport is large enough to house a Boeing 747. For 14 years, however, it has held something much larger: the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. | Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport is large enough to house a Boeing 747. For 14 years, however, it has held something much larger: the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. |
| From the enormous trident-shaped columns that supported the World Trade Center towers to delicate crystal pendant earrings from a Casual Corner store in the shopping concourse, Hangar 17 contained symbols of destruction, despair, pathos, hope and resilience. | From the enormous trident-shaped columns that supported the World Trade Center towers to delicate crystal pendant earrings from a Casual Corner store in the shopping concourse, Hangar 17 contained symbols of destruction, despair, pathos, hope and resilience. |
| Now, it is nearly empty. When summer ends, it will close. | |
| Apart from the low thunder of airport traffic, the loudest sound in Hangar 17 is the buzz of fluorescent ballasts, echoing around the 1.8-acre structure. Water drips on a tent over a 10-foot-long metal tangle that would be unrecognizable as a vehicle if it did not have wheels. | Apart from the low thunder of airport traffic, the loudest sound in Hangar 17 is the buzz of fluorescent ballasts, echoing around the 1.8-acre structure. Water drips on a tent over a 10-foot-long metal tangle that would be unrecognizable as a vehicle if it did not have wheels. |
| Hangar 17 has served since 2002 as a depot for World Trade Center salvage. | Hangar 17 has served since 2002 as a depot for World Trade Center salvage. |
| In that time, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has distributed 1,890 pieces of the twin towers’ steel and 550 other objects to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the New York State Museum in Albany and institutions and organizations around the world, like the China Construction Steel Structure Museum in Beijing, the San Francisco Police Department and Cracker Trail Elementary School in Sebring, Fla. | In that time, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has distributed 1,890 pieces of the twin towers’ steel and 550 other objects to the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the New York State Museum in Albany and institutions and organizations around the world, like the China Construction Steel Structure Museum in Beijing, the San Francisco Police Department and Cracker Trail Elementary School in Sebring, Fla. |
| All the steel has now been claimed. The distribution program was to have ended earlier this year. But Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, stepped in. | All the steel has now been claimed. The distribution program was to have ended earlier this year. But Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, stepped in. |
| “There were fewer than 50 artifacts left,” he said on Tuesday. “I extended the program to give the team time to find proper homes for the remaining pieces. We think we’ll be able to do that.” | “There were fewer than 50 artifacts left,” he said on Tuesday. “I extended the program to give the team time to find proper homes for the remaining pieces. We think we’ll be able to do that.” |
| The unclaimed inventory includes unnervingly intimate objects from the concourse shops. A luxuriant Afro wig. A display stand stacked with $34 Petite Sophisticate blouses. A mannequin hand wearing a feathered black satin glove with a paste-diamond ring. A $20 Warner Bros. Studio Store gray polo shirt embroidered with Wile E. Coyote and labeled “Ash.” | The unclaimed inventory includes unnervingly intimate objects from the concourse shops. A luxuriant Afro wig. A display stand stacked with $34 Petite Sophisticate blouses. A mannequin hand wearing a feathered black satin glove with a paste-diamond ring. A $20 Warner Bros. Studio Store gray polo shirt embroidered with Wile E. Coyote and labeled “Ash.” |
| Prospective recipients may have balked at items that so viscerally evoke the street scenes around the trade center after the 2001 attack, even though the objects themselves are not directly connected with the 2,753 people who were killed that day. | Prospective recipients may have balked at items that so viscerally evoke the street scenes around the trade center after the 2001 attack, even though the objects themselves are not directly connected with the 2,753 people who were killed that day. |
| As the distribution program nears an end, two museum directors marveled that it even began. | As the distribution program nears an end, two museum directors marveled that it even began. |
| “The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is not a museum,” said Mark Schaming, the director of the state museum. “They did heroic work. There was no handbook. There was an instinct to collect things for a museum that didn’t exist. It was curatorial triage. The site was still burning, yet they were going in there and pulling things out.” | “The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is not a museum,” said Mark Schaming, the director of the state museum. “They did heroic work. There was no handbook. There was an instinct to collect things for a museum that didn’t exist. It was curatorial triage. The site was still burning, yet they were going in there and pulling things out.” |
| The state museum acquired about 150 objects from the hangar, including the Port Authority Police Department vehicle used by Officer David Lim and his explosive-detecting Labrador retriever, Sirius. | The state museum acquired about 150 objects from the hangar, including the Port Authority Police Department vehicle used by Officer David Lim and his explosive-detecting Labrador retriever, Sirius. |
| Alice M. Greenwald, the director of the memorial museum, credited Robert I. Davidson, then the chief architect of the authority, with reaching out to the architect Bartholomew Voorsanger soon after the attack to say, “We’ve got to save some of this stuff.” | Alice M. Greenwald, the director of the memorial museum, credited Robert I. Davidson, then the chief architect of the authority, with reaching out to the architect Bartholomew Voorsanger soon after the attack to say, “We’ve got to save some of this stuff.” |
| Mr. Voorsanger assigned his colleague Mark Wagner to comb the wreckage and decide — on the spot — what pieces warranted saving for posterity. Mr. Wagner later joined the architectural firm Davis Brody Bond, which designed the memorial museum. | Mr. Voorsanger assigned his colleague Mark Wagner to comb the wreckage and decide — on the spot — what pieces warranted saving for posterity. Mr. Wagner later joined the architectural firm Davis Brody Bond, which designed the memorial museum. |
| Salvaged objects were originally kept on a tarmac at Kennedy while Hangar 17, which had last been used by Tower Air, was readied. At first, the hangar was not much better than the tarmac as a storage space. But by 2004, the authority had installed tents on the hangar floor to shelter the vehicles, pieces of the giant rooftop antenna, elevator motors and the like. | Salvaged objects were originally kept on a tarmac at Kennedy while Hangar 17, which had last been used by Tower Air, was readied. At first, the hangar was not much better than the tarmac as a storage space. But by 2004, the authority had installed tents on the hangar floor to shelter the vehicles, pieces of the giant rooftop antenna, elevator motors and the like. |
| It also built climate-controlled rooms in which to store and conserve the ruins of Alexander Calder’s “Bent Propeller” sculpture; extremely compacted segments called “composites,” one of which contained the remnants of four tower floors fused into a mass only four feet high; and the “last column” removed from the trade center site. | It also built climate-controlled rooms in which to store and conserve the ruins of Alexander Calder’s “Bent Propeller” sculpture; extremely compacted segments called “composites,” one of which contained the remnants of four tower floors fused into a mass only four feet high; and the “last column” removed from the trade center site. |
| “They were reattaching pieces of rust to preserve an artifact for posterity,” Ms. Greenwald said. “Now the ‘last column’ is available to the millions of people who are awed by it.” It was one of 400 objects and lots that the memorial museum acquired from the Port Authority, she said. | “They were reattaching pieces of rust to preserve an artifact for posterity,” Ms. Greenwald said. “Now the ‘last column’ is available to the millions of people who are awed by it.” It was one of 400 objects and lots that the memorial museum acquired from the Port Authority, she said. |
| “Had the Port Authority not taken the steps it did,” she said, “this material would have gone to the scrapyard. We would not have the museum we have today.” | “Had the Port Authority not taken the steps it did,” she said, “this material would have gone to the scrapyard. We would not have the museum we have today.” |
| By August, the authority plans to have disconnected power and water to the hangar, which is nearly 60 years old. It will almost certainly be demolished. | By August, the authority plans to have disconnected power and water to the hangar, which is nearly 60 years old. It will almost certainly be demolished. |
| Shown a photograph of the darkened room in which the last column was conserved 12 years ago, Ms. Greenwald said: “Wow — it’s like a ghost town. That chapter is now truly closed.” | Shown a photograph of the darkened room in which the last column was conserved 12 years ago, Ms. Greenwald said: “Wow — it’s like a ghost town. That chapter is now truly closed.” |